Monday, October 3, 2011

CNNGo.com

CNNGo.com


HK$246,000 bid for first 787 Boeing Dreamliner flight to Hong Kong

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 02:37 AM PDT

787 boeing dreamliner auction

A ticket for two seats on the inaugural ANA 787 Boeing Dreamliner flight between Narita and Hong Kong has sold on eBay for AU$32,700 (HK$245,645), according to Australian Business Traveller.

The Dreamliner, which is slated to become one of the most efficient commercial aircraft in the sky, will make its first flight on October 26 between Japan's Narita International Airport and Hong Kong International Airport, then retrace its 3.5-hour route back to Japan the following day.

read more

How to make money from your hotel room

Posted: 03 Oct 2011 02:25 AM PDT

Tuscany Terraces

Condo hotels -- a relatively new concept in India -- allow buyers to purchase a hotel room to live in for a certain number of days per year, and rent it out for the rest of the time. Profits are split between the owner and the hotel. 

read more

Ultimate business jets: Luxury offices in the sky

Posted: 02 Oct 2011 09:20 PM PDT

Donald Trump seems to have hit hard times. The unfortunate fellow has been forced to buy a second-hand 757 from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen for a paltry US$100 million -- though he did then coat every metal surface in gold

read more

'You lookin' at me?' Fake book soothes race relations

Posted: 02 Oct 2011 09:19 PM PDT

Why do Japanese People Stare at Foreigners?

Anyone who's spent time in a foreign country where most locals are ethnically different knows the feeling of sticking out like a sore thumb -- the whispers, the stares, the simply "being other."

Although Tokyo is a cosmopolitan city, it still happens surprisingly often -- just ask anyone who's spent time here, particularly outside the city center.

Most expats handle the situation by developing a thick skin and ignoring it. Very few actually come up with a constructive way of dealing with it -- let alone a funny one.

Wraparound solution

read more

40 delicious Vietnamese dishes

Posted: 02 Oct 2011 03:00 PM PDT

Vietnamese cuisine doesn't win any points for complexity. Many of the most popular dishes can be made just as well on the side of the road as in a top-end restaurant.

But it's precisely this simplicity, the subtle variations by region and the fresh ingredients that keep us pulling up a plastic stool for more.

 

1. Pho

What list of Vietnamese cuisine would be complete without pho? It's almost impossible to walk a block in Vietnam's major cities without bumping into a crowd of hungry patrons slurping noodles at a makeshift pho stand.

read more

4 questions you should be asking Indian travel websites

Posted: 02 Oct 2011 02:58 PM PDT

Let's begin with the good stuff.

Indian travel websites, such as Yatra, MakeMyTrip, Travelguru and cleartrip, have indeed made planning our up-in-the-air lives easier.

Fares are clearly compared and displayed in perfect grids, functionality is superior (a feat of web design) and booking is almost always seamless.

But all good things come with fine print. Or should, anyway.

Show us a person who doesn't have an online booking fiasco story and we'll show you a pothole-free Mumbai road.

read more

Fried crap: A cheat sheet to reading and pronouncing Thai

Posted: 02 Oct 2011 02:55 PM PDT

fried crab

Ever tried to order your favorite dish in a Thai restaurant and been completely misunderstood? Or carefully recited your destination to a taxi driver only to be met with a blank stare?  
These situations can usually be traced back to some sort of linguistic misunderstanding.  

The Thai language is a finicky one. A misdirected tone, a shortened vowel or improperly articulated consonant can mean the difference between a dish being "spicy" or including "duck" -- a situation not helped by the fact that Thais also have wildly different ways of writing their language in English. 

In fact, there is an official system of transliteration from Thai to English, but few Thais are aware of it, and most follow an informal or improvised way of spelling.

read more

ニュージーランドのお城で貴族ライフ

Posted: 02 Oct 2011 02:00 PM PDT

ラーナック城

英国貴族やマドンナ、サッカーの貴公子ベッカムならばいざしらず、平民の分際では「昨晩は城に泊まったよ」なんていう自慢話は無理だろうと思っていた。だが実はそうでもないらしい。

私もニュージーランドでは最高のダニーデンのラーナック城に宿泊、貴族クラブに入会してきた。

ヨーロッパの旅などではお城拝見は最もポピュラーな観光のひとつだが、通常は日帰りだ。だが今回のラーナック城訪問では、夜の帳が落ちたのは、物語のほんの序章であった。

リアル感を大切に

ダニーデンの街の中心部から車で約 20 分、オタゴ半島の高みにそびえるラーナック城は、ニュージーランド唯一の城である。

親切なスタッフは皆伝統衣装のキルトと古風な装身具を身につけおり、スコットランドの香りをもたらしている。

CNNGo関連記事:ニュージーランドをワイルドに楽しむ

オーストラリアのウイリアム ラーナックが、最初の妻エリザ ジェーン ギーズのために領土を割いた1871年に城の建設が開始された。 完成は1887年、最後に増築されたのは、娘ケイティの21歳の誕生プレゼントとしてのボールルームだったという。

ラーナック城の現在の所有者はバーカー家であり、彼らは1967年にこの城を購入し城と土地を復元しながら、この不動産を観光客向けに開発したのである。

read more